Assistant Production Manager

The Assistant Production Manager – Ready-to-Eat Meal Production supports the Production Manager in overseeing the day-to-day operations of RTE meal preparation, cooking, assembly, and packaging. This role ensures that all products meet strict food safety and quality standards, and that production targets are achieved efficiently in a highly controlled, fast-paced environment.

Key Responsibilities

Daily Production Management

· Assist in planning and managing daily RTE production schedules, including cooking, chilling, assembly, and packaging lines.

· Ensure proper coordination between prep, cooking, batching, and assembly departments to maintain smooth workflow.

· Monitor equipment, ingredient availability, and labour to prevent delays or bottlenecks.

Food Safety & Regulatory Compliance

· Enforce rigorous compliance with HACCP, CCP monitoring, GMPs, and sanitary zone controls specific to RTE operations.

· Ensure proper cooling, chilling, and time/temperature controls to prevent contamination and maintain product integrity.

· Support QA in conducting environmental monitoring, allergen control, and label verification.

· Participate in internal and external audits (SQF/BRC, customer, regulatory).

Quality Assurance

· Maintain high product quality by ensuring adherence to recipes, portioning standards, and assembly specifications.

· Conduct line checks for temperature, weight, metal detection, packaging integrity, and visual quality.

· Support root-cause analysis for deviations, customer complaints, or quality failures, implementing corrective actions as needed.

Team Leadership

· Supervise and guide production line leaders, cooks, assemblers, and packaging staff.

· Provide training on SOPs, safety practices, allergen handling, and equipment operation.

· Support employee scheduling, shift handovers, and performance evaluations.

Operational Efficiency

· Monitor production KPIs such as yield, throughput, labour efficiency, waste, and downtime.

· Assist in continuous improvement initiatives to reduce waste, improve line efficiency, and optimize cooking and chilling processes.

· Recommend process enhancements to improve consistency, safety, and productivity.

Safety & Sanitation

· Ensure employees follow safety protocols, PPE expectations, and safe food-handling procedures.

· Support incident investigations and help implement corrective and preventive measures.

· Work closely with sanitation teams to maintain high hygiene standards and ensure proper cleaning between production runs.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

· Coordinate with Supply Chain and Purchasing to ensure timely availability of ingredients and packaging materials.

· Partner with R&D on new meal formulations, line trials, or process adjustments.

· Communicate with Maintenance to schedule repairs, preventive maintenance, and equipment calibration.

Qualifications

· 2–5 years of experience in ready-to-eat meals, fresh-prepared foods, or high-risk food manufacturing.

· Strong working knowledge of HACCP, GMPs, thermal processing, cooling controls, and food safety standards.

· Experience supervising teams in a fast-paced, multi-step production environment.

· Strong organizational, communication, and problem-solving skills.

· Bachelor’s degree in Food Science, Culinary Arts, Industrial Engineering, or related field (Desirable).

Key Competencies

· RTE-specific food safety expertise

· Time/temperature control management

· Production planning & line coordination

· Problem-solving & continuous improvement

· Creating efficiencies

· Attention to detail and quality focus

Work Environment

· On-site in a high-care RTE production facility with strict hygiene and PPE requirements

· May require working early mornings, evenings, weekends, or rotating shifts

· Exposure to chilled environments, steam, and temperature-controlled rooms

· Frequent standing, walking, and hands-on supervision on the production floor

Please contact Gary on gbennetts@rutledgegroup.co.uk